DAY 3 IN ISTANBUL

On Friday morning we were picked up by a little bus and the guide from our travel agency to take us for our first organized sightseeing tour.

It turned out that we were the only once the other French speaking people had cancelled their trip because apparently they had celebrated their holidays too much and were tired had a hangover. That was real nice because our guide, a young man who spoke very good French had more time to answer our questions and also show us other things than on a usual sightseeing tour.



He first took us to the Blue Mosque




There were many people from all over the world with their guides who had the same idea and we had to line up to get in the mosque. Fortunately it went quite quickly




Everybody had to take the shoes off and the women who didn't have a scarf got a scarf from this lady. Men wearing shorts had to tie the scarf around their shorts. I thought they are quiet uneducated because they wouldn't go to church at home in shorts either !



After having admired the wonderful artwork of the mosque we sat there and our guide took a picture from us with the mosque behind.



From there we went to the ancient mosque Mosque Aya Sofya which had been an orthodox church before and is now a museum. Amazing to see this transformation from a church to a mosque ! There were beautiful mosaic works.

The huge marble vase is a lustration urn. It is carved from single blocks of marble.

It took quiet some time until we had finished to admire all this beauty and we were quiet hungry when we came out.

Our guide went with us to the entry of the big "Bazar" which we will visit another day, because we also wanted to sit down. So we said good bye to him, and rushed through the bazar




Here is entrance or exit (it depends on your direction of course) n° 1 and we had to go out at n° 7. There we found a typical Turkish Snack and had a Durum, a very thin crepe, filled with roasted chicken, vegetables and a delicious sauce and then presented like a roll. It was delicious ! the price too, we payed 2 € (1.40 $) per roll !

The rest of the day we spent at the "beach" i.e. on the roof of our hotel with fake grass, nice beach beds and also used the swimming pool. It's so funny to be on the 6th floor, overlook the whole city with all the mosques and take a sunbath !